Reference Network and Localization Architecture for Smart Manufacturing Based on 5G

Once upon a time, there were roaming charges and disgruntled consumers. As a result of a preliminary ruling1 concerning the validity of a legislative measure2 on roaming on public mobile telephone networks within the European Union (hereinafter 'Union'), the regulation of roaming charges may have been changed forever. The reference had been made in proceedings between operators of public mobile telephone networks, including Vodafone Ltd, Telefónica O2 Europe plc, T-Mobile International AG, and Orange Personal Communications Services Ltd, and the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. The roaming regulation aimed to cap the wholesale and retail charges mobile operators could charge for the provision of roaming services on public mobile networks for voice calls between Member States. The validity of the roaming regulation was challenged on three grounds, namely that its legal basis was inadequate, that it infringed the principle of proportionality, and that it offended the principle of subsidiarity. It was left to the Court of Justice to seal the fate of the roaming consumers.

Wireless communication research has recently expanded to address the use of 5G in enterprise application, which has led to the introduction of local private industrial networks. At the same time, the use of wireless communication services offshore has increased both in improving the productivity of the incumbent oil and gas segment, and particularly in enabling sustainable windmill park implementations. These developments call for novel, flexible and scalable spectrum management models to meet the operational requirements of these critical infrastructure verticals. This paper investigates spectrum management approaches and regulatory decisions for private mobile industrial communication networks for the offshore applications. The findings indicate that in offshore areas where significant natural resources, such as oil have been utilized, the regulators have defined mechanisms to make spectrum available while the regulation varies between countries. Traditionally, the regulators have been oriented towards public mobile networks and their service areas have been land oriented. The basis for the jurisdiction for offshore deployments is very different, and also the radio environment at sea differs significantly from that on land which calls for new authorization mechanisms and coordination approaches, and different technical requirements.KeywordsCognitive radioPrivate networksOffshoreRadio accessRadio spectrum administrationRadio spectrum managementSpectrum sharing5G mobile communication

Customer orientation and operations: The role of manufacturing capabilities in small- and medium-sized enterprises

MikroTik RouterOS ™ is the operating system and which can be used to make the computer even become a reliable network routers , includes a comprehensive range of features for network and wireless , one of the reliable features is a VPN ( Virtual Private Network ) .VPN ( Virtual Private Network ) is a way to create a network is " ptivate " and safe to use a public network , such as the Internet . In the world of computer networks known term tunnel , often called a tunneling technique . This technique allows a local network ( private ) associated with other local network , through a public network ( Internet ) . The data to be sent from one local network to another local network will be in the pack ( encapsulation ) by other protocols.
 Keywords : MikroTik, VPN (Virtual Private Network), Tunneling.

SMEs’ Support Functionality Analysis Based on Statistical Analysis

To compare the concentration of serum alpha-tocopherol during the postpartum period in women admitted to public and private hospitals in Natal (RN), Brazil. The study included 209 women in the postpartum period, 96 of them from private hospitals and 113 from public hospitals, studied between 24 and 48 hours postpartum. Inclusion criteria were: mothers aged 12 years or more, without diseases associated with pregnancy, who had given birth to a singleton with no malformations. Clinically decompensated women with multiple fetuses were excluded. A 5 mL blood sample was obtained from each participant under fasting conditions, before the first meal of the day. The concentration of alpha-tocopherol in serum (µg/dL) was determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The statistical difference between means was tested by the Student's t-test. The mean concentration of alpha-tocopherol was 1.115.7 µg/dL in puerperae from the public network and 1.355.7 ± 397.6 µg/dL in puerperae from the private network , with a significant difference between groups (p=0.000687). Vitamin E concentration was determined individually and an alpha-tocopherol level <11.6 µmol/L or <499.6 µg/dL was considered to indicate deficiency. Vitamin E deficiency was detected in 5.3% of puerperae from the public network (n=6), whereas no deficiency was detected among women from the private network. However, low concentrations of alpha-tocopherol (11.6 to 16.2 µmol/L or 499.6 to 697.7 µg/dL) was detected in both groups, i.e., in 9.7% of the women from the public network (n=11) and in 4.2% for the women from the private network (n=4). These results highlight that women assisted in the public sector were more vulnerable to developing low concentrations of alpha-tocopherol than women assisted in the private sector.

The introduction of the Factory of the Future, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and the cloud computing paradigm in industrial use cases means that new communication systems to support their requirements must be developed. The fifth generation of cellular networks (5G) has become one of the most relevant alternatives in this field. Within 5G network infrastructures, there are public networks along with private 5G networks, which allow a private entity to have its own local 5G network to cover its needs. However, the regulations in place in Europe, and the spectrum reserved for private 5G, mean that it cannot meet the requirements of some of the industrial applications for which it was intended. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the parameters of the 5G network to find the operating thresholds according to the requirements set by 3GPP.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are vital to the economy and have helped it grow, but they still have a high failure rate. Many businesses fail within the first few months of operation due to a lack of strategic planning. This study aimed to identify persuading factors that contribute to strategic management to improve performance and categorise challenges faced by SMEs in implementing a strategic plan in the eThekwini region of South Africa. The study adopted a quantitative research approach, and the population of interest for the research includes small and medium construction companies, which were sourced via the Construction Industry Development Board (cidb) registry. An online survey tool was used to distribute the questionnaire to 145 small and medium businesses. The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical tools and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The study's findings reveal that most eThekwini-based SMEs in the construction industry use strategic management practices to improve their business performance. The key factors for strategic management in SMEs, such as improving decision-making processes, increasing productivity, and gaining a competitive advantage, demonstrated high levels of agreement among participants regarding improving business performance. This study also found widespread agreement on the challenges of implementing a strategic plan in an organisation. Therefore, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must develop procedures and policies to deal with the difficulties that arise when drafting a strategic plan. This will ensure that strategic planning works in their operations. This can be accomplished by implementing strategic management into SMEs training programs offered by government and tertiary institutions that support SMEs. The government should also improve education and broaden its business skills curriculum. Keywords: Business, Construction, Performance, Planning, Strategy, South Africa.

An increasing amount of research focuses on integrating the Internet of Things and blockchain technology to address the requirements of traceability applications for Industry 4.0. However, there has been little quantitative analysis of several aspects of these new blockchain-based traceability systems. For instance, very few works have studied blockchain’s impact on the resources of constrained IoT sensors. Similarly, the infrastructure costs of these blockchain-based systems are not widely understood. This paper characterizes the resources of low-cost IoT sensors and provides a monetary cost model for blockchain infrastructure to support blockchain-based traceability systems. First, we describe and implement a farm-to-fork case study using public and private blockchain networks. Then, we analyze the impact of blockchain in six different resource-limited IoT devices in terms of disk and memory footprint, processing time, and energy consumption. Next, we present an infrastructure cost model and use it to identify the costs for the public and private networks. Finally, we evaluate the traceability of a product in different scenarios. Our results showed that low-cost sensors could directly interact with both types of blockchains with minimal energy overhead. Furthermore, our cost model showed that setting a private blockchain infrastructure costs approximately the same as that managing 50 products on a public blockchain network.

The fifth generation (5G) and beyond networks promote new business opportunities not only for mobile network operators but also for industrial verticals. However, most currently deployed 5G networks are public mobile networks developed for generalized purposes, limiting their adoption for various industrial fields demanding specialized quality of service. The new trend in applying 5G and beyond networks to industrial fields requires a new design paradigm shift calling for customized network structure, network resources, and network management. In customized 5G and beyond private networks (C5GBPN), network structure can be designed to be standalone or integrated; network resources can be designated to be exclusive or shared; and network management, including access control, data control, and governance, needs to be revisited. The flexibility of C5GBPN is of paramount importance for various application scenarios of industrial verticals, such as ultra-reliable low-latency communications, enhanced mobile broadband, massive machine-type communications, and positioning. In this regard, we first present the background and motivation of developing C5GBPN in this article. Then we provide three types of C5GBPN and discuss their pros and cons. Also, we provide feasible solutions to deal with these foreseeable design challenges of C5GBPN.

Process planning and scheduling used to be two very separate processes. However, owing to the recognition of the intricate relationship between them, recent work has focused on integrating the two processes. The use of flexible process plans in scheduling allows more flexibility in production and thus gives substantial cost savings. It also increases the solution space of the optimisation problem and makes it more critical to have an effective optimisation algorithm than for traditional scheduling problems. This paper describes a process-planning and scheduling system that makes use of the branch and bound approach to optimise priority weighted earliness of jobs scheduled in a mould manufacturing shop. Instead of considering a flexible manufacturing system, this paper focuses on the demands of less integrated factories, which are especially typical of mould manufacturing shops. The layout of the system, the methodology of the algorithm and effectiveness of performance measures for real industrial use are discussed in the paper.

Purpose: This study investigates the role of commercial bank loans on the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Morogoro Municipality, Tanzania. It examines how commercial bank loans affect SME financial performance, providing a comprehensive understanding of how financial support from banks influences SME growth and sustainability. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study adopted a quantitative approach. It utilized cross-section data collected from a sample of 92 SMEs in Morogoro municipality. The collected data were descriptively analyzed using SPSS version 25. This analysis aimed to evaluate loan accessibility, determinants of loan choice, and the effect of commercial bank loans on key financial metrics such as profitability, cash flow management, and business growth. Findings: The study reveals that although many SMEs perceive commercial bank loans as easily accessible, others encounter significant barriers, including high interest rates and stringent collateral requirements. The study also reveals that commercial bank loans have mixed effects on SME performance. While they positively impact revenue generation and asset growth, their effects on profitability and business expansion are inconsistent. Originality/Value: This study contributes to the existing literature by providing nuanced insights into the role of commercial bank loans in SME performance within a Tanzanian context. It highlights the challenges SMEs face in accessing financial support and the varying impact of bank loans on their financial outcomes. The study findings are relevant for both policymakers and financial institutions aiming to improve loan accessibility and support SME development. Policy Implications: The study suggests several policy implications, including the need for banks to simplify loan application processes, offer more flexible loan products and address high interest rates that hinder SMEs access to finance. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of building strong relationships between SMEs and financial institutions and leveraging financial advisory services to enhance loan utilization and overall business performance.

Public networks offer a variety of choices for business networking needs. This chapter describes how private networks composed of leased lines are different from public networks. The chapter also describes the structure of public networks, including the structure of the public switched telephone system and the common technologies used in public networks. Advantages of using public networks over a private network of leased lines include value‐added services, lower cost for a given performance, and the removal of the requirement of maintaining in‐house expertise for network maintenance and support, planning, and disaster recovery. Disadvantages include potential variation in performance due to congestion on the public network and lack of control over day‐to‐day operations, upgrades, and long‐range planning for capacity changes. The chapter concludes with a description of the use of public networks in the Internet and E‐commerce environments.

ATM is based on the efforts of the ITU-T Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network (B-ISDN) standard. It was originally conceived as a high-speed transfer technology for voice, video, and data over public networks. The ATM Forum has broadened the ITU-T's vision of ATM for extended use over public and private networks, multi-protocol support and mobile ATM. There are also some ATM applications in High Performance Computing (HPC). ATM is a packet switching technique based on a virtual circuit mechanism. Data flows are statistically multiplexed and communication resources are dynamically shared. Therefore the high performance ATM switch is essential for quality of services (QoS). This thesis introduces typical ATM switch architecture design and analyses design problems. The research objective is to propose a switch architecture design that can solve or improve those existing problems to achieve a superior performance. The research goal is an integrated ATM switch architecture that will handle both unicast and multicast packets. Unlike the usual design for the multicast ATM switch which concentrates on a cell copy network with a unicast switching network, the proposed switch architecture processes the network packets in a single switching block, and allows unicast and multicast packets to co-exist without competing. The switch design has a simple topology and operation principle and is easy to implement. Furthermore, no copy network is required. Three major components are proposed to form the core of the new switch architecture: the parallel buffering strategy for improved buffer performance, the fast table lookup algorithm for packet duplication and routing, and the relay ring controller for solving the contention problem associated with multiple packets destined for the same output port. A mathematical model is presented and its numerical results are analysed. In addition, the simulation algorithms for the proposed switching design are presented and compared against the switching design with input and output buffering strategies. The simulation results are also compared and analysed against the numerical results. A multicast traffic model is also presented. Its performance calculation for the proposed switch is achieved through simulation. Performance analysis is compared against the output buffering switch under the same multicast traffic model. The performance analysis shows that the proposed switch architecture achieves high throughput with low cell loss rate and low time delay. Its performance can be as good as the output buffering strategy or better. Therefore the proposed switch design has solved the problems associated with input and output buffering. This thesis also analyses the complexity of the proposed switch architecture and suggests a topology to build a large scale ATM switch. The suitability and feasibility for production implementation are also addressed.

This study analyzes the influence of supply chain flexibility on competitive advantage in Bangladeshi small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). By employing a quantitative approach and utilizing a sample of 250 SMEs, the research investigates various dimensions of supply chain flexibility, including supplier flexibility, production flexibility, delivery flexibility, inventory flexibility, and market responsiveness. The findings indicate a significant relationship between market responsiveness and competitive advantage, highlighting its crucial role in enhancing SMEs’ positioning within the market. Conversely, the study found that other dimensions of supply chain flexibility did not show a statistically significant impact on competitive advantage. This research contributes to the understanding of supply chain dynamics in developing economies, particularly in the context of SMEs. Limitations include the study’s focus on a single geographic region and the reliance on self-reported data, which may introduce biases. Practical implications suggest that SMEs should prioritize market responsiveness while developing their supply chain strategies, fostering agility and adaptability to changing market conditions. Socially, the research emphasizes the importance of supporting SMEs in building flexible supply chains to enhance their competitiveness and contribute to economic growth. This study’s originality lies in its focused exploration of supply chain flexibility in Bangladeshi SMEs, filling a gap in the literature on supply chain management in developing countries.